EIGHT

Dawg stood next to the pickup, his wrists hanging over the edge, his head bowed, and he had no idea how to unknot the burning fist growing in his chest.

Where was Christa? God, why hadn’t he brought Christa with him? She could have talked to Piper, could have made her understand that he had—he had—to make certain whoever hurt her never—fucking never—hurt her again.

He felt as though every breath he was trying to take was restricted.

“Fuck, hurts to breathe,” he muttered.

“No shit,” Rowdy was hoarse.

Natches wasn’t speaking.

As he wiped his hand over his face, car lights sliced into the parking lot, drawing his gaze as he found himself staring at the little car he’d bought Christa several months before.

As it pulled to a stop behind the truck, it wasn’t just Christa who stepped from the car. Rowdy’s wife, Kelly, and Natches’s wife, Chaya, moved slowly toward them.

It was Natches who moved first.

Two steps and Natches was pulling Chaya into his arms, burying his face against her neck and holding on tight as Christa moved slowly to Dawg.

“Jed called,” she told him. “He told us everyone was safe, but you might need us?”

Her hand, so delicate and fragile, settled against his arm.

“What’s wrong, Dawg?”

His throat was so fucking tight. Hell, he hadn’t felt like this since the night he learned Christa had lost their child so long ago. Like tears were burning in his gut and refused to be shed.

“Someone beat her.” His voice was grating, so rough he barely recognized it as he turned to her and pulled her to his chest. “Christa, someone beat her face and she won’t let me help.”

He couldn’t understand it.

It was tearing him apart. His guts were being ripped straight out of him and he couldn’t make it stop.

“Who? Who, Dawg?”

“God. Piper,” he snarled, so furious with her, so broken inside he had no idea how to find all the pieces. “Piper, Christa. She just fucking disappears, then comes back, her face swollen and bruised, and she won’t let me help.”

“Did you offer to help, baby?” she asked gently, her expression understanding, knowing. “Or did you demand?”

He had asked. Hadn’t he?

“You demanded, didn’t you, Dawg?” she guessed. “All ready to charge ahead and exact vengeance.”

“Someone hurt her.” It didn’t make sense that she wouldn’t want vengeance.

“Come on, Dawg. Let’s go home.”

He shook his head fiercely. “You have to make her tell me—”

“Dawg, you can’t make Piper do anything.” She sighed. “She’s home; you know she’s safe. Give her time to come to you.”

He shook his head.

“You’re just going to piss her off,” Chaya stated as Natches lifted his head from her shoulder and moved away several paces. “She’s too strong to break down and cry, or let herself be treated like a child. You’ve hassled her for a year; now it’s time to go home.”

“She won’t stay safe.” He shook his head; it didn’t make sense to him.

“And here she’s a Mackay. Go figure,” Christa murmured.

“We’ll find him.” This time it was levelheaded, “think about it first” Rowdy. “We’ll find him, Dawg, and when we do, he won’t be able to hit another woman.”

Natches, Rowdy, Chaya, and Kelly moved to the truck Dawg had driven to the inn as Dawg moved to the car with his wife. For the first time, Christa noticed, she didn’t have to fight over driving.

Dawg moved to the passenger seat as she slid under the wheel.

“I need to go home.” He breathed roughly. “I need my girls.”

Her and his daughter.

She held back the secret she’d learned earlier. The news that their daughter would have a brother or sister. News that she feared would only make Dawg more protective, even as it made him more loving.

The drawback?

His feared inability to protect those he loved was breaking his heart, and that was breaking her heart. Because there was nothing she could do to ease his pain or to make those he loved, besides herself, understand the demons that tormented him.

Perhaps it was time she, Kelly, and Chaya had a talk with the stubborn and just as determined Mackay sisters.

ONE WEEK LATER

“Good morning, Mr. Samson; I hope you enjoyed your breakfast?” Piper met Guido Samson in the hall outside his room and gave him a warm smile.

The new lodger was a bit portly, his black hair thick, with a slight wave in the shortened length that was brushed back from his face to reveal a hint of gray at the temples. Dark, swarthy, just showing the lines of advancing age, he looked to be in his late fifties, though Piper bet he was in his early sixties.

He’d been at the inn four days and was already making his presence known, mostly by pissing Tim off. It seemed Guido couldn’t help but flirt outrageously with Mercedes Mackay.

“Ah, Miss Mackay.” He stopped, holding his hand out to her.

As Piper extended hers he took it, raised it to his lips, and pressed a light kiss to it with charming ease before releasing it.

“And here is your young man.” He looked over her shoulder, a broad smile pulling at his lips as Piper swore she could feel Jed coming up behind her.

“Morning, Mr. Samson.” The deep, controlled drawl—controlled hunger, anger, and determination—sent a shiver racing down her spine.

That tone had only intensified over the past days, just as the gleam of determination in the navy blue gaze had only hardened and, at certain times, intensified.

“Ah, Mr. Booker, good morning,” Guido greeted him. “I am out for a day of sightseeing. I believe my son, Rhylan, is arriving this evening and hopes to find the best spots for a few days of fishing.”

“The fishing here is excellent, Mr. Samson; I’m certain your son will find plenty of excellent spots.” Edging around Guido’s portly frame, Jed curled his fingers around Piper’s upper arm. “Excuse us, please. Piper and I need to talk.”

“Of course,” Guido murmured, amused. “Young people have many things to discuss privately.”

His soft chuckle followed them up the hall as Jed led her to her room. Opening the room and stepping in, Piper quickly pulled her arm from his grip.

“Since when do we have things to discuss?” Piper asked roughly as the door closed behind them, very well aware of the fact that he let her go. She wasn’t free because she wanted to be; she was free because he let her be.

Crossing her arms beneath her breasts, she glared at him, wishing she could push back anger, guilt, or any of the other emotions tearing through her, as she could with her family.

She could stare back at Dawg and freeze any response to the knowledge that he was frightened for her, hurting for her, worried about her, or just plain pissed off at her.

Her sister Eve had always been so thankful to be accepted and loved by her brother and cousins that she would have done just about anything—anything but deny the man she loved.

Lyrica, a year younger than Piper, had such a guilt complex that she worried constantly that she would never be good enough, act properly enough, or be strong enough to be part of the Somerset Mackays. God only knew what their youngest sister, Zoey, felt. She rarely talked about it, and if asked would just laugh and say she was where she belonged. But Piper had always felt there was so much more beneath that statement.

Of the four of them their eldest sister, Eve, had handled Dawg best. They all loved him, but each of them had different ways of dealing with him.

Him, or any other man.

Unfortunately, the defenses Piper had built over the years didn’t work with Jed.

“Have you talked to Dawg yet?” he asked.

Piper looked away and shrugged. “He hasn’t been around for a while.”

Guilt was lashing at her now.

God, she remembered the look on his face when he’d seen the bruises on hers. He looked as though someone had died. Or something inside him had died. She hadn’t seen him since.

“I’m going to talk to him,” she promised.

What the hell was it with Jed Booker?

He was just staring at her. There was no force, no guilt-inducing comments, just those dark, dark blue eyes watching her with that silent, deep curiosity.

“Are you?” Jed asked.

It was a simple question. No mockery, no sarcasm, nothing offensive, but Piper could feel the guilt growing inside her.

“You don’t understand what he’s like, Jed,” she burst out, pushing her fingers through her hair in frustration as she turned and stomped to the other side of the room before turning back. “This is how he gets you. He knows how to work every damned one of us.”

“Does he, Piper?” he asked her quietly. “Or is he just struggling with his inability to protect four girls he loves nearly as much as he does his own daughter? Four girls whose abandonment and hardships as children torment him?”

She shook her head fiercely. “That wasn’t his fault.”

“Fault doesn’t matter, Piper,” he said calmly, moving to her, making her all too aware of the sudden sensitivity of her body whenever he was around.

His voice was steady, every movement deliberate, but his eyes were like deep pools of sexual heat. His gaze licked over her as his hands curved against her bare shoulders. They slid down along her arms, then back up, the rasp of the calluses against her softer flesh so erotic she was forced to bite back a moan.

“What does matter, Jed?” she asked, unable to break her gaze from his. “Should I give in to him as Eve tried to do, and refuse to end up in your bed? Should I promise not to live or have a life so Dawg can sleep at night?”

Tears filled her eyes at the thought. “Don’t you think I’ve learned how I have to handle him by now? If I don’t defy him, then I won’t have a chance at having a life myself.”

“And there are those times you could defy him and lose your life, Piper.”

“Then he has to learn to talk to us.” Frustrated anger hoarsened her voice as it tore through her emotions. “Why do we have to automatically give in and bury our heads against life or risk dying? Jed, I can’t do that. If I’m in danger then I have to know, and I have to know why. Just as you would.”

His gaze flickered and she knew he understood that.

“If I go to Dawg, then he’ll see it as a weakness; don’t you understand that? I’ll be giving in and he’ll take full advantage of it. Not out of cruelty.” She held her hand up to delay whatever argument she could see brewing in his expression. “Not out of manipulation. That’s his instinct,” she argued. “Just as it’s yours.”

It was the way they were, the type of men they were. If Dawg didn’t come to her first, seeking answers, then he wouldn’t be in a frame of mind to discuss what had happened to her while she was away. He would dictate her security instead and try to lock her so far out of sight she would have a hard time finding herself, let alone anyone else finding her.

“You forget: I came for you.” His head lowered as he voiced the reminder, his lips brushing against her ear and causing her eyes to close at the pleasure of the touch. “No questions, no demands. I came for you, Piper, and I’m the one forced to field questions from your friends and family. If I have to take Rowdy or Natches Mackay’s fist for you, because I keep refusing to answer their questions, then you are going to owe me. Big-time.”

The words were a breath of warning against her neck as Piper felt her knees weaken.

Lifting her hands from where they hung at her sides, she tentatively gripped his upper arms, feeling the play of his biceps beneath her fingers.

“They won’t hit you.” She knew her brother and her cousins. They were hard men, but they weren’t unfair.

“Perhaps I should have a taste now.” His lips brushed against her jaw. “Show me what I’m going to take that punch for, Piper.”

Her head turned; her lips parted.

She’d dreamed of his kiss since that first one six weeks before. Each day, each time he spoke to her, teased her, silently rebuked her, had built the need for it.

She needed his kiss.

She needed his touch.

Her lips accepted his, parted, and Piper found herself dragged into a chaotic storm of pure heat.

Pleasure raced across her flesh like ribbons of electric sensation. From her lips to the tip of her toes and back to the crown of her head, his lips against hers created a reaction she couldn’t have expected.

She should have expected. She’d felt it before. But how was she to know that the first time hadn’t been just a fluke? She had never predicted the intensity of the pleasure to repeat itself or—incredibly—to begin building higher, stronger.

Faster.

* * *

Jed barely controlled the gut-deep groan of instant, overwhelming hunger.

Son of a bitch, it couldn’t be this good. There was no way this unusual depth of pleasure was real.

He’d convinced himself it had been a figment of his imagination, but as he lifted Piper against his chest and bore her to the bed, he knew the pleasure was doing just that.

It was burning brighter, hotter, and deeper than anything he’d ever known.

She wasn’t doing anything different. It wasn’t that experience filled each tentative lick of her tongue against his or each heated brush of her body against his.

Piper was anything and everything but experienced, and he knew it. He’d made it his job to know everything about her that a man could dig up.

But he hadn’t known the effect she’d have on him.

A low moan slipped past his lips. Her knees were hugging his hips, the thin material of her panties beneath the ankle-length silky skirt she wore rubbing against the denim of his jeans as it covered the tormented length of his dick.

God, he was hard.

So hard he felt as though his cock were seconds away from becoming pure steel, throbbing furiously, his testicles drawn tight beneath it. He knew he wouldn’t last long. Hell, he’d be lucky if he got inside her before he embarrassed himself and spilled his release into his jeans.

Laying her back on the bed, Jed couldn’t force himself to break from the kiss that seemed to be feeding the flaming lust burning between them.

Fuck, it was good.

She was good.

She was as sweet as sunrise and as hot as the Texas heat waves he remembered from his childhood.

Rolling his hips against hers, the hardened length of his cock pressing against the tender mound of her pussy, Jed worried at his lack of self-control.

She wasn’t experienced. Hell, it would surprise the hell out of him if he learned she wasn’t a virgin. But she had the power to strip him down to the core of who and what he was. A male animal. A sexually hungry, sexually determined, sexually intent male animal, and he couldn’t seem to pull himself back.

That powerlessness was so alien to his character, to his very nature, that shock resounded to the depths of his senses.

Yet it wasn’t enough to stop him.

One hand pushed beneath the loose, sleeveless top she wore. One of her own creations yet again: a soft white silk with a handkerchief hem that perfectly matched the hem of the skirt.

Tiny, tiny mother-of-pearl buttons held the material over her rapidly rising and falling breasts as his hand slid beneath the top, his palm cupping the underside of one breast perfectly.

The excuse for a bra was little more than silky lace, easily pushed aside by his fingers as his thumb searched out the hardened little point of her nipple.

It was swollen tight and hard, and the caress he gave it had Piper arching to him, a muted cry falling from her lips as pleasure arced between them like a live electrical connection.

With his free hand Jed struggled to undress her. The tiny buttons were instruments of torture as his fingers fumbled and slipped on them. It seemed to take forever, but finally he released the captive tip of her nipple to lift her to him and push the blouse from her shoulders.

Reaching behind his neck, he gripped her wrists, pulling them free of the hold she had on him and dragging them down to allow him to remove the blouse and lacy bra.

Hard, sipping kisses kept them connected as he hurried to undress first Piper’s lush, heated body, then his own harder, fiercer one.

If he didn’t have her, if he didn’t sink his cock inside her soon, then he was going to die of the hunger clawing inside him.

“So fucking pretty,” he growled against her lips as he finally had her naked beneath him, had himself naked and ready to take her.

But the silken peaches-and-cream flesh distracted him.

He meant to spread her thighs and sink inside her while he still had the control to take her slow and easy.

He made the mistake of lifting himself from her, releasing her lips to rise above her, his gaze lowering to the full, tempting globes of her breasts.

Tiny hardened cherry red nipples topped the firm flesh, and the temptation to taste them was too much to resist.

“You’re killing me,” he groaned. “God help us both, Piper; I’m dying for you.”

The need to taste her had his mouth watering, the hunger obliterating everything else. His head lowered, lips parting, and when he captured one tight, swollen peak, he swore he could feel her losing control along with him.

* * *

Piper jerked at the sudden suction of his mouth against the overly sensitive tip of her breast. The sensation was so sharp, so brutally erotic that her hands rose quickly to his shoulders, her nails biting against his flesh.

She had to hold on.

Oh, God, it was so good.

She whipped her head against the comforter beneath her, her hips lifting against him, feeling the brush of the heavy width of his cock against her thighs—there were so many sensations. So much pleasure.

The tugging of his mouth around the tender bud of her breast was an agonizing pleasure. One hand cupped the curve of her flesh as the other moved slowly down her waist to the rounded curve of her thigh.

“Part your legs,” he ordered hoarsely as his lips moved to the opposite peak. “Ah, God, let me in, baby. Let me have you.”

She was really going to do this, wasn’t she?

There was no turning back; she could feel it.

After years of wondering why she’d been unable to take a lover, the mystery was now solved.

She hadn’t taken one because she’d needed Jed. She’d waited for him, ached for him—somehow she’d known he was out there; she’d known he’d come for her.

Her legs parted, urged by the powerful fingers at her thighs as his lips lowered and covered the other hardened tip of her nipple. Suckling it, he lapped at it with his tongue, then rasped it with his teeth.

Piper felt as though she were being devoured.

That thought was amended as his lips began a path down her torso. Hungry kisses, tasting licks set fire to her senses. Caresses stroked pure exquisite pleasure to her nerve endings and had her waiting in painful anticipation as he moved ever closer to her trembling thighs.

“You know what I want, baby.” He groaned as he found her belly button and felt her tremble in response. “I want all those sweet juices gathering at your pussy.”

Her breath caught and held in her chest as his lips moved farther, kissed, stroked, licked.

A breath of air brushed over the bare flesh of her pussy, the dew-slick folds sensitizing further at the thought of the coming caress.

She couldn’t help but watch.

His gaze caught hers for long, erotic moments before his eyes dropped, drawing her eyes to the swollen folds.

His lips parting, Jed’s head lowered, his tongue reaching out for her, then burying in the slick, swollen flesh of her pussy.

“Oh, God. Jed.” Her hands slid into his hair, gripped and held on tight as her upper body jerked upward in response.

Spreading her knees farther, Piper dug her feet into the bed and lifted her hips, pressing closer, muted, hoarse cries leaving her throat as his tongue began a sensual, delicious dance in the plump, slick flesh he’d found.

He pushed his hands beneath her hips to lift her closer, and Piper lost the strength to hold her shoulders and head from the bed. Falling back, she strained against the pleasure, eyes closed, reaching for the brilliance of the supernova of fiery heat she could feel building in her pussy.

Wicked and erotic, his tongue lapped at the juices spilling from her vagina before easing up, licking and stroking, pushing her further, deeper into the maelstrom gathering inside her. Rasping, probing, the devilish instrument of torturous ecstasy began licking around her straining clit, testing the swollen tenderness, inciting it to a desperate ache that had her crying out for release.

When his lips covered the distended little bundle of nerves, Piper felt the shock of it explode through her system. Shuddering, her hips jerking against his hold, against the sucking heat, she felt her senses begin dissolving in a release of such pure ecstasy that she swore she could feel herself flying.

Drawn tight, arching to him, racked by primal internal shudders of a climax that shocked her to her woman’s core, she fought to cry, to scream out the pleasure, only to find enough air to give a low, ragged moan.

And still it wasn’t enough.

For all the strength and power of the climax gripping her, still, that building ache in her pussy drove her to reach for more. To beg for more.

Her eyes jerked open as he pulled himself to his knees.

Eyes wide, Piper’s gaze focused on the thick, engorged crest of his cock. He quickly pulled the condom from the side table, tore it open, then rolled the protective sheath over himself, before he came over her once again.

“Jed . . . ?” She could feel the trepidation building inside her.

“I have you, Piper.” She was only barely aware of the words whispered at her ear as he buried his lips in her neck. “It’s okay, baby; I have you.”

Everything inside her stilled then.

The feel of the hard, thickened crest of his penis pressing into the quivering entrance of her vagina held her poised on a rack of desperate need and building fear.

“Jed. Jed, I haven’t—” A groan tore through her as the throbbing width of his cock breached the clenched opening of her pussy.

“I know, sweetheart.” His head lifted. “Look at me, Piper. Let me see you.”

She forced her eyes open, watching his eyes as he stared down at her, the blue so dark it now appeared black.

“Hold on to me.” He groaned as her hands clenched in the comforter. “Hold on to me, sweetheart.”

Lifting her hands, she gripped his upper arms, stared into his eyes, and felt him advance further before pulling back.

“Wait.” The protest was instinctive.

“Shhh, I’m not going anywhere,” he promised, his lips lowering to hers. “Just hold on to me. Just for a second.”

The muscles of his hips bunched, the head of his cock throbbed inside her, and a second later a hard, heavy thrust had the iron-hard length powering through the shield of an innocence she knew she’d saved for him.

His lips caught her cry at the shock of the entrance.

Holding the kiss, he pulled back, then pushed inside again, burying deeper as pleasure and pain began to build with equal intensity.

Lifting her legs to get closer to each heavy thrust, Piper gave herself to him, knowing that from this moment on, she no longer completely belonged to herself.

Each hard thrust inside the clenched depths of her pussy pushed inside her with increasing strength, faster, to an edge of a fiery abyss she was both terrified of and reaching for.

Pleasure radiated through her body, stoked by each piercing impalement of his cock inside her, stretching her, burning the sensitive depths with the heavy heat of his possession.

Moving over her, stroking inside her with quick, deep thrusts of the steel-hard, heated flesh, Jed pushed her harder, faster. Her hands clenched on his arms as the flared crest parted her flesh and drove to the depths of her before quickly retreating, then stroking over flesh so sensitive that the pleasure was agonizing with each stroke.

Each thrust was harder, faster. Each was hotter, more demanding, until that abyss reached out for her, the flames exploding around her and tearing through her senses with such blinding ecstasy that she knew she would never be the same.

Harsh, quaking shudders of sensation attacked her body. Unprepared for their strength, for the sheer destruction of her senses, Piper could only do as he’d told her: She held on tight.

She gasped, crying out his name as her body clenched and shuddered beneath him, her pussy tightening around his shuttling cock until he thrust in hard and deep and gave himself to his own pleasure.

She hadn’t imagined it could be like this. She’d never conceived of such pleasure, of such deep, overwhelming waves of pure ecstasy streaking through her, possessing her.

She wouldn’t have believed that in one moment of rapture her soul would open and her heart would give itself totally, completely, to a man as fierce, as hard, and yet as gentle as Jedediah Booker.